2d ago

The Fediverse Isn’t the Future. It’s the Present We’ve Been Denied.

www.joanwestenberg.com The Fediverse Isn’t the Future. It’s the Present We’ve Been Denied.

For years, the internet has been shrinking. Not in size, not in data, but in ownership. A vast, decentralized network of personal blogs, forums, and independent communities has been corralled into a handful of paved prison yards controlled by a few massive corporations. Every post, every “friend,” e...

Québec @lemmy.ca

www.joanwestenberg.com /the-fediverse-isnt-the-future-its-the-present-weve-been-denied/

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Fediverse @lemmy.world

The Fediverse Isn’t the Future. It’s the Present We’ve Been Denied.

www.joanwestenberg.com /the-fediverse-isnt-the-future-its-the-present-weve-been-denied/

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Fediverse @lemmy.ml

The Fediverse Isn’t the Future. It’s the Present We’ve Been Denied.

www.joanwestenberg.com /the-fediverse-isnt-the-future-its-the-present-weve-been-denied/

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The problem is that it’s “too complicated“ by presenting choices before knowing what they mean. It’s a decision tree without knowing the outcomes.
I’m new to Lemmy and it wasn’t as easy to sign up and use as Reddit or other social networks.
First I had to choose a server. To do that I had learn the consequences of choosing a server. Once I decided .ml had a sign up process where I had to be approved.
Then I wanted to choose a community, I think it’s called, and found there were multiple communities with the same name. Once again I had to make a choose without knowing the difference.
It all reminded me of the Paradox of Choice TED talk, https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_the_paradox_of_choice .
Finally I had to choose an app, as there is no official one. Now I’m in Mlem, but I don’t know if it’s better or worse than the others.
Choice is great but for easier onboarding a first stop for server and app would be great. Like browser, you’re given one when you start and if you want better, and you’re ready too look for one, you can go looking.
- There is an issue open on Lemmy's github about merging communities of the same name together in the ui by an "all" button, but sadly it's been inactive for a year: #1113
  
  That’s more a feature for a client app.
  
  I mean, people do use the Web UI.
  
  There’s more than one web UI.
  
  I’m not in a rush to endorse client apps adding large, experience changing features. That will radically alter the way different users interact with the service, they might need two apps to get all the features they want, etc
  Sounds like a good way to make things even MORE confusing for new users.
  
  I’ve been on Lemmy for a while and still find the duplicate named communities on different insurances confusing. The number of users only somewhat. There are lots of communities still listed from dead instances like feddit.de.
  Unique names for communities would be helpful and also support moving a community to a new instance.
  
  Community names are unique if you account for the instance name.
  This is a bit confusing as usernames follow a similar, email-address-like format.
  I would enjoy there being just one community for a given topic that spans all instances, and moderators can either take actions that are instance specific or “global” (happen everywhere) but again that can get complicated fast. Who gets that global power? What if there are disagreements? Can an instance revoke a global action for just their instance? How much extra work does that create? How do instances handle backend storage for stuff like that (do you want CP deleted globally? I’d imagine so because it’s illegal to store it. Who decides to block an instance out of a community for posting offensive/illegal content; and how do you prevent all that from being abused for non-offensive content that instance mods find disagreeable?)
  
  I wonder how moderating would work in a merged community, would mods not from instance X only be able to hide a post from that instance from the merged community, or would they have power to remove a post from another instance? I’d imagine that is one of the hiccups of a feature like this, it is a shame it has been collecting dust though
  Edit: re-read the issue, now I understand it would be more of a multi Reddit than a merged community, so mods would only have the power for their own instance/community it sounds like
- If you choose the app first, and you choose Voyager, everything else - browsing, creating an account - is intuitive and just works.
  
  Yeh don't choose that one, just sign up on desktop and use Jerboa ngl the reason techbros win is most normies do not want agency, they want to turn their brain off and scroll whatever the algorithm serves up as they do.
  Technology Connections made a good video on this recently but I fear his plea will fall on deaf ears.
  Just like this article, no one's actually denying anyone the fediverse, we are literally right here.
  
  Even though it's first on the list when searching on the iOS Appstore I didn't choose it because the icon looks... well stupid.
  
  I tried out it and Jerboa on Android (from F-Droid) and besides for not showing user PFPs, Voyager is generally better.
  
  For the uninitiated it’s basically a 1:1 clone of Apollo for Reddit. Hell, even the app’s name is derivative!
  That said it’s still one of the best Lemmy apps for iOS and is a testament to Christian Selig’s original vision.
- Anyone want to clue him in on who runs .ml? I feel like it's going to break his heart. But also, I kinda feel like he should know...
  
  Please tell us! I personally have no idea
  
  There’s some accusations of bias / pro CCP moderation on .ml
  There’s some stuff about it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36255366
  But I haven’t directly experienced any of this myself so I can’t speak to the truth of it. Idk.
  
  The ml stands for Marxism-Leninism. They are tankies.
  
  ml is the Internet country code top-level domain(ccTLD) for Mali.
  
  Well the folks over at .ml aren’t from Mali or host their server there.
  
  This is completely untrue and I don't know why people keep repeating this.
  
  Lemmy.ml used to be the biggest instance and absolutely full of pro-russia people and shit (Lemmy was in general, lemmygrad was the second biggest instance behind ml) so it wouldn't suprise me
  
  Because people with the @lemmy.ml tag are constantly saying the dumbest tankie shit ever.
  When I see someone say Ukraine in 2014 was a CIA backed coup against the democratically elected pro russian government - it comes from that server, every time
  
  Lemmygrad is worse actually, but most instances defederate from them
  
  The lead developers of Lemmy. They also develop the mobile Lemmy app Jerboa (personally, not my first choice).
  
  What's wrong with Jerboa? Probably the only app I'd use for Lemmy.
- Finally I had to choose an app, as there is no official one
  It's called Jerboa and it's one of the worse ones, but it does exist
  
  Jerboa
  What makes it official, I didn't come across it when I was searching for an app. I finally see why all the other apps use a rat as their logo.
  
  Jerboa has the same lead developers and is part of the same GitHub organization as the Lemmy server and web UI.
  The logo for Lemmy itself is the head of a rodent, supposedly a lemming. Most instances use that logo or a variation of it in their web UI. Jerboa and other apps in turn tend to use a rodent in the logo.
  
  What's the issue with Jerboa? It's like Relay it's probably the best one out there.
- On the other hand, there is something to be said for having a small test before joining. I remember Usenet before and after it became accessible to AOL users.
  
  This can be said for the internet in general. Just look at the brainwashed masses. Without easy access to the internet via smartphones, Trump, Weidel, Wilders, Meloni etc. would never stand a fucking chance.
  
  I was reading some articles the other day, and the impression I have is that that's really not true for at least Trump.
  The Trump route was more:
  Conservatives in the US felt that media had a liberal bias. Whether it did or didn't doesn't matter for this discussion --- that was the perception.
  Fox News offers a viewpoint appealing to conservatives. It becomes essentially the only mainstream conservative media outlet. Liberal viewers watch a variety of news media, but Fox News dominates among conservatives.
  Fox News --- already somewhat opinion-based from the start --- starts to veer off into conspiracy land. Because so many conservatives watch Fox News, this has a major impact.
  There's some back and forth here. It's not that Fox just pushed ideas that were out there, but that they're willing to show material based on what people will watch, and they gained more viewers than they lost if they ran bonkers stuff.
  https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/08/media/fox-news-hoax-paperback-book/index.html
  
  There wasn't really any major center-right mainstream news source other than Fox News, so if Fox shifts into conspiracy-land, so does the conservative public.
  I dunno. Maybe the answer is something like a news source somewhere between CNN and Fox News. Something that a conservative audience is comfortable watching, but doesn't fly off the handle to the degree that Fox has. It maybe can't capture an audience that's as large, but it only needs enough to be viable.
  I mean, there are center-right media sources like the Wall Street Journal, but those are kinda not aimed at mass audiences.
  
  In Germany it's definitely true. You can witness this process in real-time. I already know the "arguments" the brainwashed masses come up with and if there's some new hot take, I usually go to one of the fact checking sites and immediately find said hot take there. It's crazy how easy it is to manipulate the masses via social media. There has never been anything more efficient than this shit.
  
  Is fox news "social media" though?
  
  I was talking about my personal observation in Germany. We don't give a shit about Fox. We have BILD and Nius instead. Also state media keeps inviting Nazis to talk shows. But social media is the main driver here.
  
  The best center-right news sources are behind a paywall. The crazy ones, those are free.
- Finally I had to choose an app, as there is no official one. Now I’m in Mlem, but I don’t know if it’s better or worse than the others.
  I'm just here from Reddit after the Boost app finally stopped working. So now I'm running "Boost for Lemmy", would definitely recommend it. It was one of the best 3rd party Reddit clients.
- I did always think that a shared (somehow) login would be great; but how do you federate that? Do you? What if the original server goes down? How does moderation work?
  It gets really complicated really fast.
- I registered using Mlem and it was way better than trying to do it via the Web. An onboarding like that would be much better than the current process.
- As someone new here, what do you think would have really helped you without changing the fundamental principles of the fediverse? Like a website with clear information, or something else?
  
  I think we need simple, non technical content that gets people who haven’t used the fediverse stoked to find out more and try to get involved. That’s what I’m trying to do with articles like this - add momentum and tap into a big potential audience who are primed for this. But I also do want to put together a Getting Started landing page that helps people kick off.
  I really do think we need to get people pumped enough to want to be educated about it all.
  
  This article was great! Thank you so much for writing it.
  
  Any thoughts on
  https://fedi.tips/
  I haven’t really used it since I wanted to populate my Mastodon timeline. Now it’s happening a little bit more naturally, through boosts and hashtags.
  
  The problem is information, there is simply too much. I decided to join social network other than reddit. From that to posting on lemmy should be a one step process. 1 signup page 1 app recommendation
  Really I should of just written Lemmy.com instead of being distracted by the whole concept of fediverse and looking into it before signing up.
  
  I really like how voyager does the onboarding, maybe we should promote going trough that.
- What's Mlem? Can't find it on the Play Store. I'm using Sync which is pretty good...
  
  probably because it's an iOS app

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